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Shops and supermarkets are hunting for 100,000 seasonal staff this Christmas in a massive festive jobs boost.
Tesco kicked off its recruitment drive today, announcing that 30,000 part-time roles are available.
Thousands of jobs are also going at Sainsbury’s, the Royal Mail, John Lewis, Morrisons, Amazon and Aldi.
However, the companies may struggle to fill the roles amid a workforce shortage that is threatening to ruin Christmas.
There are already two million job adverts open across the country.
The problems have been fuelled by Brexit and Covid, with an exodus of foreign workers causing particular issues.
A shortage of 100,000 lorry drivers has sown chaos through British supply chains in recent weeks, in everything from fuel to food.
Nestle, the makers of Quality Street, warned yesterday that staffing and transport problems could hit supplies this Christmas.
Food processing facilities and farms have also faced labour shortages, and retailers and their suppliers say they are concerned about finding enough warehouse workers to ensure deliveries arrive on time during the busy festive season.
Major companies are offering around 100,000 jobs in total in the coming months.
Sainsbury’s is hunting for 22,000 seasonal workers, Amazon is looking for 20,000 and the Royal Mail is looking for 2,000.
Meanwhile, John Lewis Partnerships is hiring 7,000 temps, Morrisons is looking for 3,000 and Aldi 1,500.
The competition for staff has led to a rapid growth in starting salaries in many professions.
Vegetable pickers are being offered the equivalent of £62,000 a year to pick cabbages at farms in Lincolnshire.
Wages are also soaring in the meat industry, with trained butchers offered up to £37,000 due to a shortage of 15,000 employees.
The labour shortage and supply crisis has been exacerbated by soaring gas and electricity bills in the UK.
Many energy firms have collapsed in recent weeks, sparking fears the energy price cap will rise significantly over the next year and will likely go higher than £2,000.
Business leaders have warned that toys, clothes, chocolate, ceramics and toilet roll could all be in short supply due to the issues.
The British Ceramic Confederation said some firms could be forced to shut due to spiralling energy costs.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drink Federation has said the days when consumers could expect to pick up nearly whatever product they want from supermarkets are over.
On Friday, Downing Street announced that Tesco’s former chief executive, Sir David Lewis, has been drafted in as the government’s supply chain adviser.
He has been appointed to help clear ‘current blockages’ and work on ‘pre-empting potential future ones.’
It is hoped the end of the furlough scheme last month will help to ease pressure in the jobs market. However, there are fears that many of these workers may have the wrong skills for the jobs on offer.
KPMG and recruitment group REC found that while growth in the number of vacancies slowed in September, there were still not enough workers to fill all the open positions.
Anna Purchas at KPMG said: ‘The continued decline in candidates making themselves available for work is now reaching critical levels and could stop London’s recovery in its tracks before it’s really got underway.
‘The skills shortage, exacerbated by Brexit, requires urgent action both from businesses and policy makers. We must re-train and re-skill UK workers if we want to maintain London’s global competitive position.’
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